(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an assembly and method for assisting a person who is both hearing and sight impaired to understand a spoken word, and is directed more particularly to an assembly including a set of fingers in contact with the person's body and activatable in a coded manner, in response to speech sounds, to exert combinations of pressure points on the person's body.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Various devices and methods are known for enabling hearing-handicapped individuals to receive speech. Sound amplifying devices, such as hearing aids are capable of affording a satisfactory degree of hearing to some with a hearing impairment. For the deaf, or those with severe hearing impairments, no means is available that enables them to receive conveniently and accurately speech with the speaker absent from view. With the speaker in view, a deaf person can speech read, i.e., lip read, what is being said, but often without a high degree of accuracy. The speaker's lips must remain in full view to avoid loss of meaning. Improved accuracy can be provided by having the speaker “cue” his speech using hand forms and hand positions to convey the phonetic sounds in the message. The hand forms and hand positions convey approximately 40% of the message and the lips convey the remaining 60%. However, the speaker's face must still be in view.
The speaker may also convert the message into a form of sign language understood by the deaf person. This can present the message with the intended meaning, but not with the choice of words or expression of the speaker. The message can also be presented by fingerspelling, i.e., “signing” the message letter-by-letter, or the message can simply be written out and presented.
Such methods of presenting speech require the visual attention of the hearing-handicapped person.
It is apparent that if the deaf person is also blind, the aforementioned devices and methods are not helpful. People with both hearing and sight losses have a much more difficult problem to overcome in trying to acquire information and communicate with the world. Before they can respond to any communication directed at them, they must be able to understand what is being said in real time, or close to real time, and preferably without the use of elaborate and cumbersome computer aided methods more suitable for a fixed location than a relatively more mobile life style.
There is thus a need for a device which can convert, or translate, spoken words to signals which can be felt, that is, received tactually, by a deaf and blind person to whom the spoken words are directed.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/224,230, filed Aug. 19, 2002, in the names of Robert Belenger and Gennaro Lopriore, there is described a speech to touch translator assembly and method which is operative to convert, or translate, spoken words to signals which can be felt, that is, received tactually, by a deaf and blind person to whom the spoken words are directed. There remains, however, a need for the receiver of the spoken words to be able to discriminate between different speakers and thus a need for a translator of the type described in the aforementioned application but further providing an indication as to the originators of the spoken words.